by Keeping your finger on the pulse of your competition is one of the best ways to learn what works and what doesn’t. How successful are they in using certain channels? Chances are, they’re after the same demographic you are, right? Learn from them and make yours better.
Digital trends come and go. Instagram and Vine were extremely useful for many brands, but that doesn’t mean they were right for yours. Hang back and see what works for others before you spend money that could be wasteful.
Once you understand the pros and cons to various media, you can better determine what is right for your target consumer. Print ads in the paper will probably never be seen by a millennial, for example, who goes first to digital content. Whereas a baby boomer may not catch that Pinterest ad you’re running. Research, investigate, test. Then you’ll determine the right mix for your campaign.
Honest considerations about your product and brand.
- Budget carefully. Figure out how much money you’re working with. This will help you narrow down and prioritize the channels that will give you the best ROI.
- But know that just spending lots of money won’t automatically bring high results. The most important factor weighing on your campaign is the message. Invest in good branding and writing so that your ads have substance.
- Understand and define your product, brand, and value proposition. This will help you craft a message that speaks to who you are.
- Know your audience. Know not just who they are and where they shop, but also what they value so that your message reflects those same values.
- Know where your competitors are advertising. This can give you an indication of where you yourself may get the best ROI.
- Set realistic goals and then measure them. There’s no better way to refine your marketing strategy than by monitoring your results and implementing the findings on future campaigns.
Strategy:
Find the Right Media Mix
Using multiple advertising mediums to promote your products and services is often a great idea for a campaign, but it’s important to get that mix right. Different combinations work better with different audiences. It’s essential that you understand your target audience to determine what media mix to use to use. The choices you make in your media strategy will determine how successful you are with your advertising strategy.
Here are two key thoughts for guidance with your eventual media mix:
1) Defining your target audience with a reasonable amount of certainty.
2) Backing up your choices of media with accurate and current data of your audience’s media consumption habits.
Define the target audience
Defining the target audience for your product or service should take into account basic demographic data like gender, income, age, location and education levels. You should also know who are likely customers for your offering. Your team can develop customer personas to further drill down on your likely target audience types.
Use good data to choose media targets
Collecting more data on your target audience increases your opportunities to see relevant media matches, across formats, platforms and time zones. This should be clean data. This data can include organic research, industry research, competitor audits and more. Learning how to gather, analyze and effectively use data is one of the most important tools in any digital marketer’s toolkit.
Check the data from media viewing research sites including comScore, Nielsen, and local network affiliates, depending on your product or service. Collect specific data on gender, income, and region. Using the right data can provide the insight needed to boost engagement among target audiences and increase return on investment (ROI).
Omnichannel approach
Marketers are increasingly adopting an omnichannel approach to online advertising. Instead of narrowly focusing on a few niche channels, advertisers are going wide across the board. This means using retargeting, web ads, email marketing, online display ads, direct mail, social media ad programs, and pay-per-click channels to gain the attention of online customers.
The ultimate goal in an omnichannel approach is to spread the touches with your customers. The more times they see your ads, the more attention you can bring to your product or service
Use different media effectively
Maybe your budget doesn’t allow for for a wide omnichannel approach. Maybe your target audience stays glued to YouTube sports clips every evening. You’ll find this out by analyzing the YouTube viewer data for your preferred target customer. If that’s the case, you can concentrate a portion of your ad spend on this particular platform.
